The Family

“Dyas is in greater control of her space than ever before. If the punches and slams of her beat poet playwriting was what had people taking notes in the early days, her confidence as a director impresses here, using a theatrical code which causes Aristotelian poetics to fuse, spark, and the physicality of her performers basks in the ensuing fireworks.”

The Family is a play about your family.
Watch them fight, love and try to make dinner.
They will cry and stare as funds gets thinner.
BUT The Family love each other,
Cos after all, you can choose your friends….

When I was on The Abbey Theatre’s new playwrights programme, Tom Murphy told me that a family would be a very good thing to write a play about. I was also reading a book about documentary making and a book about dysfunctional families by John Bradshaw. I invited seven amazing actors and artists into a room to see what rules and games we could design to give audiences a totally new experience. There was no ‘script’ for The Family, more of set list. There were lily pads we knew we had to leap too, but how we got there was new each time, as our imaginations and creativity flowed. I employed the concept of ‘Greatest Hits’ that if something worked, you could repeat it, so we didn’t have to be constantly thinking of new things, rather refining what worked. It was a period of great experimentation and creativity. The work was elevated to a whole new level when framed as a 1950s TV Show by the amazing team of designers.

Credits

Created and devised by the cast, Grace Dyas and Doireann Coady
Directed by Grace Dyas
Cast: Brian Bennett, Shane Byrne, Gemma Collins, Gerard Kelly, Lauren Larkin, Louise Lewis and Barry O’Connor
Set by Doireann Coady
Lighting by Eoin Winning
Costumes by Emma Fraser
Produced by Lara Hickey
Images by Ros Kavanagh

First Developed as part of THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: Vol 2 Dec 2011
Premiered at Project Arts Centre, 2012
National Tour 2013, 2014
Included as part of The Ireland Trilogy at The Abbey Theatre, 2016

Image above is of Louise Lewis, Barry O’Connor Lauren Larkin, and Shane Byrne in the premiere performance and taken by Ros Kavanagh

History

Heroin